Gripes a Gropper!!

I have recently been putting in a split shift at the Farm (social commitments allowing!). The first visit weather based and generally early am and then a return during the evening in an attempt to catch something dropping in late on!

This morning I walked the Farm having seen Dunlin on the North lake and then on the lagoons. I have been walking the works area in the hope that I bump into a Black Redstart (they breed in Croydon). The walk back from 100 Acre produced a Wheatear and an LRP on the North Lake.

(Before!)

I returned to the Farm this evening to witness all hell breaking loose with a resident Swan going ballistic at a family party of Canada Geese on the lake. I considered taking action as one of the adult Canada’s took a bashing from the stir crazy Swan as it attempted to protect its young!! The Canada escaped a pasting and the goslings seemed to come out unscathed.

(Fight Night!!)

I moved into the hide after making sure there were no casualties of this one sided conflict. A Hobby then appeared swooping and snatching a Swallow from just above the water line! Was it going to be a full moon tonight!

The lake calmed itself down and I settled into checking the surviving Swallows that were hawking insects just above the water. No Red Rumps on this occasion but it was worth a try. As boredom was taking hold and I was questioning my own sanity I started tucking into my Smarties (The guys in Paraguay will get this but they are called Rocklets out there!). I heard a reeling just down the hide in the scrub! Surely not! With a few birds having been noted in the county I had been looking for this species daily on 100 Acre! There was a pause of a couple of minutes and a Grasshopper Warbler reeled again slightly further down the scrub.

A group text and a phone call to Frank later and I moved further down the path lakeside and waited! Light was beginning to fade in the scrub so I decided to cover the footpath but did not hear the bird call again! All hell broke out again with Blackbirds, Wrens and Robins causing the commotion this time! What was going on at the Farm tonight!

I returned to the hide and waited until around 2115hrs when rain stopped play! This was my third Gropper at the Farm but the first one I had found.